Corrected a significant player recovery bug. If a player was on a disabled list, eligible to be activated but still injured he was not seeing the proper "Injury Recovery" dev cycle (formerly known as "Time of Return").

Today, we have introduced a bonus $5 credit (September Newsletter) to private world commissioners. This is an additional thank you for taking the time to manage a strong world, recruit other owners during rollover, and help build the HBD brand.

This new $5 credit is issued at the same time other end of season credits are issued. This is for all seasons moving forward.

For instance, if you are the commissioner of private world B and you are about to complete season 9, you will receive the $5 credit at the end of the season. Then again at the end of season 10, etc.

There are currently 15 private worlds that have already had their standard end of season credits distributed but have not rolled over (meaning they missed the point where this credit is distributed). As a result, we have issued those 15 commissioners their credits today.

Thanks as always for playing HBD. Our private worlds continue to do great.

We would like to announce an HBD Update that will go live on Tues. Nov. 3. The update includes UI adjustments, significant bug fixes, engine enhancements and some tweaks to contract demands.

When viewing minor league player's on the FA report, you will be able to offer up to 5 contracts at once.

Arbitration demands will begin reflecting the player’s performance in addition to his ratings. For example, if he was moved to a back up role or out for an extended time with an injury, you won’t see his demands significantly increase.

The logic for when two ML free agents or International free agents are offered the same value for a contract will see some adjustments. There will be a few tiebreakers introduced before relying on the time the first contract was offered. The tiebreakers are as follows: Playoff contention (based on last seasons winning %), coaching staff, and ballpark.

The AI for filling empty coaching roles will see some improvements.

Minor League free agent demands will be adjusted so that fringe big leaguers will no longer seek multi-year deals making them unattractive.

Major League free agent demands will be adjusted to better fit their potential market value.

We found that in some rare cases it was possible to have more than 25 players on your ML active roster. Now, if your franchise is over the 25 player limit you will be notified on the day of the Rule 5 draft. You will have all of Spring Training to get your roster back down to 25 active players. If you do not adjust your roster by the end of Spring Training the AI will begin to DFA the worst (by OVR) and cheapest player's on your roster until you are back down to the active limit.

No Hitters, Hit for the Cycle, and Perfect Games will be added to the player awards page on the player profile. These awards will be immediate upon them happening and they will carry over from season to season.

If you open another owner’s profile you will be able to view your record against him.

A new page will be available called the Franchise Standings page. This page will provide a standings snapshot of each of your teams at each level.

The final nearing recovery message of the season has been modified to better inform you of when a player is eligible to come off the DL.

Owner's will be notified with an inbox message when Award Voting starts.

Statistics on the player profile will have a Majors or Minors option.

Player's that are DFA'd will automatically be removed from the playoff roster.

The International Prospects page will initially default to projected ratings.

We have two more updates planned for the near future. The big announcement here is that the next one will include the Hall of Fame.

We just wanted to let you all know that the update is now live! The complete feature list is outlined in the above post.

Several engine changes were also implemented:

Fielding improvements:

Revamped +/- system. Top notch fielder at a position (across HBD, not just world) should see about 30 plus (+) plays over the course of a season assuming the average number of opportunities. Terrible fielder at a position should see about 30 poor (-) plays. This is also level independent, so a great SS in Lo A should see 30 plus plays and a terrible SS in Hi A should see 30 poor plays.

Added good and bad fielder chances for fielding bunts (sac or for hit)

Reduced likelihood of pickoffs/balks when score differential is significant

Reduced likelihood of catcher pickoff when 9th or later and 2 out

Improved PH logic to go for power when 2 out, nobody on and tie game or down by one

It will no longer hold runners on if 2 out in 9th or later of game with big lead

Slightly adjusted out/safe logic for throws to base when runner trying to advance an extra base on a non-force. Decrease in outs %.

Hitting improvements:

Reduced upper end of home run frequency. The steroid era is over.

Adjusted distribution of bunts (more to catcher and pitcher)

Adjusted sac bunt success rate when corners or if not in

Slightly increased foul ball out distribution

Decreased chance of pitcher arguing balls at plate while batting.

Pinch hitting logic improvements:

Improved PH logic to go for power when 2 out, nobody on and tie game or down by one

Improvement to logic for PH for a pitcher. If tied and 9th or later, no available pitchers on bench, let the pitcher hit for himself if he has pitches to give and nobody in scoring position or two out.

Improvement to logic for PH for a pitcher. If tied and 9th or later, nobody on, pitcher has enough pitches to get through another inning and there's not another pitcher in the same or better role, let him hit for himself. Think of situation where 1 out, bases empty, Setup A at plate and no other closers or setup pitchers in pen. Let him hit, rather than risk having to bring in a mopup or long reliever.

Minor adjustment to logic for deciding to yank a pitcher for a pinch-hitter based on game situation.

Improved logic so pitcher will hit for himself during blowout.

Don't PH for position player if he's last pos player available and pitcher due up that inning

Pitching Logic improvements:

If no hitter late, don't swap out starting catcher for rest or def rep

If 2 out, nobody on and mopup or long reliever on mound with a significant lead (such as after surrendering a homer), the manager will stick with the reliever long so as not to waste a relief pitcher.

Improvement to logic for yanking mopup after the score has narrowed.

When closer in game at start of inning (after he pitched in previous inning), manager will now rely on max pitch count instead of target pitch count when save situation is still in effect.

Manager will no longer bring in specialist to face a pitcher at the plate

Improved logic for issuing IBB late in game when OBP more important than OPS.

Roster / Substitution improvements:

Improvement to PH/PR sub logic. If nobody can play position on bench (def rep/rest hierarchy) and nobody can play based on spectrum, leave the incumbent in rather than waste another player (except for catcher/non-catcher situation). Improved logic so there will be less chance of seeing closers, setup men, specialists play the field in dire situations.

Two important notes related to the update:

We had to omit the feature regarding the Rule 5 draft due to an unsolvable scenario and because it added an additional layer of complexity to an already complicated process.

If you are currently in any of the following worlds: Second City, Evangeline Leagu, or Wailing Onions the auto DFA'ing of players if you are over the ML roster limit of 25 will NOT affect you this season. It will, however, take affect next season.

And finally, we have scheduled a developer chat for next Mon. November 9th starting at 2p. You can start submitting questions today by clicking on the following link.

We just wanted to let you know that the release date for the Hall of Fame has been set and it is scheduled to go live on February 2nd.

Each individual world will have its own Hall of Fame and eligibility will be retroactive for all seasons in every world. Below are some details on how the Hall of Fame works.

Eligibility

Eligibility for the Hall of Fame is two fold. There are automatic nominations that the AI processes and these players are automatically eligible to be voted into the Hall of Fame. Users will also get to nominate players that fit the criteria listed below. Users can nominate (limit of up to 2 per season) any player that played on his franchise at any point during his career. A player will be eligible for the Hall of Fame as soon as he retires and fits the specified criteria outlined below. In other words, there is no 5 year waiting period like in real life.

User nominations (regular season stats only)-Position players: 10+ years of ML experience with 300+ PA per season.Relief pitchers: 10+ years of ML experience with 45+ G per season.Starting pitchers: 10+ years of ML experience with 125+ IP per season.

If a player is nominated 5 times and never gets enough votes to be inducted into the Hall of Fame he will no longer be eligible to be nominated.

Voting

Once the nomination list is set, all of the users in the world will begin to vote on the nominated players. You may only vote for up to 5 eligible players per season. It takes 17 votes for a player to be inducted. If a player is nominated to be voted into or inducted into the Hall of Fame the franchise that is represented will be the franchise that he played the most games for in his career.

Schedule

Nominations begin on the first budget day and last through the cycle in which the Rule 5 draft takes place.Voting starts on the same cycle as the Rule 5 Draft and lasts until the first day after spring training.Once the voting period has ended the votes will be tallied and the inductees will be announced via an inbox message and a new World Content piece.

That should cover just about everything at a high level. There is a forum thread that has been active for a week or so and I encourage you to post any questions you might have in that thread as I will be monitoring it off and on over the next couple of weeks.

We have decided to reduce the qualifications for Hall of Fame eligibility. There was much discussion of this in the forums and we are going to reduce the qualifications to:

300 PA per season for position players125 IP per season for starting pitchers and long relievers45 GP per season for relievers

We are not going to account for players that had ML years generated upon world creation. Eligibility is strictly based on the seasons in which they played.

Below are some additional updates that will be going out along with the Hall of Fame. The 40-Man Roster change is very significant so please read it thoroughly and carefully.

40-Man Roster Update

Until this point, we have allowed users to remove players with minor league options from the 40-man roster at will. This will be updated to correspond with MLB rules. In order to remove ANY player from the 40-man roster, he must pass through waivers. This is an important change and it makes signing prospects to major league deals much more meaningful.

Home Run Rate Update

Following the “end of the steroid era” update, the HR/G rate at the big league level continues to drop. At this point, it’s a bit below what we had projected. This update will bump the rate up a bit. Prior to the update, the HR/G for two teams was ~2.80. As of this week, it had fallen to ~2.02. We are striving for ~2.40. And, remember, the drop off is only at the top. Those power hitters that were hitting 80+ homers will come back to Earth a bit (with everyone else falling into place). This HR/G rate can be monitored on the World Snapshot page: http://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Main/WorldSnapshot.aspx

Auto Coach Hiring Improvements

There was a bug in the auto hiring of hitting coaches in which unqualified 1B/3B coaches were being assigned to hitting coach roles when they were not qualified. A threshold has been put into place so now all 1B/3B coaches who are auto hired to be a hitting coach will be qualified to coach at that role.

Prospect Budget Limitations

We have decided to omit this change. There will be NO limitations on the amount of money that can be transferred into the Prospect budget.

We also want to let you know that for any world who had their schedule generated before the update you will notice that the "Announce Hall of Fame" results line is still visible. This continues to have no meaning and it will go away when you rollover to the next season.

We are now generating more fielding instructors per world. This should alleviate the shortage that some of you may have been experiencing recently.

The disabled list report page now has more significant meaning. We are now listing the day in which the player is expected to be healthy and the day in which he is eligible to come off the DL. There was a bit of confusion as to what the previous page meant and this should clear that up. Also, any player that has a season ending injury will now be labeled as such.

The votes for the HOF will now be finalized on the correct day and the new World Content piece that shows the new inductees will now display as intended.

As most of you know we passed out a survey on 5/17 that involved making changes to the coach hiring process. The overwhelming majority of you wanted to see the loyalty rating significantly increased. With this update we have increased the values so that any coach with a 50 loyalty rating will now stay with your franchise 75% of the time. The percentage increases as the loyalty rating gets higher.

In addition to making that change (we couldn't just leave it at that!) we have gone ahead and included some significant changes to the process that have been
requested heavily for quite some time.The first is the ability to promote your minor league coaches during the rehiring process. You can now promote any minor league coach that is willing to stay with your franchise. Adding this feature has made the page and the UI a bit more complicated so please take your time with it the first time you experience it.

The other included improvement is that fielding coaches will no longer automatically accept bench coach roles. Both roles are now viewed equally, so it will now come down to the value of the contract.

All of these changes should make the process much better and leave you with only a few coaches to sign each season.

Below are some other minor updates going out with this release.

Increased the min target/max pc from 5 to 40 for SPs

Added the "Minors" view option to the trade block and trade search pages

If your FA Target list is full the page will now display a message letting you know

Type A/B designation is now displayed all of the time. Previously, at the end of the FA negotiation period we removed it if you were viewing your player

Added handedness to waiver wire page

If a player has options, was on a 40-man roster previously, is not on the 40-man roster and is eligible to have his contract renewed, his 40-man roster will no longer change when his contract is auto-renewed during rollover. As it currently stands, he was automatically being added to the 40-man as part of his renewal.

And finally, we have made some engine improvements:

Improved logic for choosing relief pitcher when all relief pitchers are below auto-rest level or resting (desperate situation). Manager compares those that can pitch in relief, then those that can pitch in the inning, then fatigue difference (20 points better will give nod), then statistics. Previously, fatigue check was not in place.

Improved late inning pinch-running logic. Manager is no longer so stringent when looking at the incumbent baserunner.

Improved logic for deciding to play the infield in. If it’s past the 6th and team is trailing by more than 5, the team will no longer play the infield in.

Improved logic for deciding to take the extra base in the 7th or later. More cautious baserunning, better decision making tied to overall logic rather than just baserunner skill.

Improved logic for pinch-hitting for a pitcher. Previously manager would consider PH for pitcher even if no healthy, non-resting pitchers were available in pen despite a tie game in the 9th and the pitcher still had innings left in his tank

We also want to take some time to thank you all for the amazing response rate we got to the survey and all of the suggestions that we got out of it. Thank you all for your continued support and passion for the game. We hope you all enjoy the update!!!

When a player has his service time updated, we had been resetting his service days to 0 anytime he exceeded the required 172 days to achieve a year of service time. With this update, that is no longer the case. His service days are now properly updated to the remainder.

For instance, if a player racks up 82 service days in season 1, then 81 more service days in season 2, he still has not earned a year of service time as 163 falls short of the required 172. In season 3, he earns 180 more days of service. Following the update, he will continue to earn a year of service time after season 3, and he will start season 4 with 171 service days.

This change won't impact most owners, but it will impact owners who have always tried to leverage the service day rules to the fullest.

This is not a retroactive change and only affects worlds that have rolled over on or after 6/14.

**UPDATE** It turns out this change did not properly go into effect when noted. There was a change that did not carry to our production environment completely. It is now in effect. Thank you utahjazz88 for pointing this out.

We wanted to give you all some very good news! We have a very significant update releasing on Monday morning. Check out the details below.

11.15.2010 HBD Update

We have included a new Private World Rules Page. This page allows the commissioner to post rules for their private world. All owners in the world will be able to view the rules. This will give us a better idea of what rules were outlined and agreed upon by private world owners. If any of the rules have been violated we can now handle these types of situations much quicker. If you are currently a private world commissioner we highly encourage you to add your private world rules as soon as possible. You do not have the ability to alter or delete your rules. If you need to change a rule just post the changes.

When comparing free agent contracts of the exact same value we are now incorporating loyalty with their previous franchise. If a player has been with a franchise for more than 5 seasons that franchise will have a significant advantage during the negotiation process.

Top flight Rule 5 Draft eligible players will now be protected automatically if a user has not logged in for 5 days prior to the Rule 5 Draft roster freeze

Top flight draft picks and International free agents will now be assigned and inactivated automatically at the end of the season if a user leaves them pending assignment. The players are assigned to the lowest level possible, salary permitting.

We’ve added a new World Content subject called “Top Tools”. This is a breakdown of players at the ML level with the best abilities in a specific category. Some categories include Best Starting Pitcher, Best Outfield Arm, and Best Power.

6 year minor league free agents can no longer be signed during the re-sign period.

There is a new Pending Private Worlds display on the World Select page that will show all of the private worlds that have openings along with a link to sitemail the commissioner. We hope that this will make filling your private world much easier.

We have added our share bar to all of the profile pages. This will make sharing players, franchises, and owners much easier across several different social networking sites and our forums.

Pitchers can longer have their positions changed from the GMs Office or the Player Settings pages.

Minor League management settings will now carry over from season to season

Added GP to lineups page

Private world commissioner has been added to the World Select page.

The injury icon is now displayed on the FA report page

We are no longer maintaining view settings when you change worlds. If you use the world selection drop down to change worlds all of your view settings will now be reset.

We just wanted to let you know that we have released a fairly sizable update to HBD. The details of the update are listed below

HOF Voting Results page

World Scoreboard page

This page can be accessed in three ways.

World Office - News - Scoreboard

From the schedule page you can click on any date where games were played

World Office homepage in lower left hand content box

HOF Qualifications have been increased. Too many players that are not qualified were on the nomination list

LIVE has been removed from the standings

Baserunning rating has been added to the following pages

Arbitration Report

Free Agent Report

Free Agent Targets

International Prospects

Trade Block

Trade Build

View Roster

Waiver Wire

Watch List

Spring Training Squads

Player Search

Fatigue columns are now visible on the watch list page

Maximum number of players that can be watched has been increased to 60

HOF voting results in the world content area will now always display the top 6 vote getters regardless of induction

Private world rules improvements

HOF Nomination and Voting page performance enhancements

Minor bug fixes

We would like to say thank you to everyone that made suggestions. We have two more HBD updates planned for the short-term and we will let you know what items will be included as we near the release date.